3 ways to stay on top of your social media over Christmas

Anybody else counting down the days to Christmas right now? I know I am!

From a work perspective, it’s that time of year where much of our time is spent tying up loose ends and prepping projects for the New Year (oh – and finding some time for the odd festive tipple!). But as much as you might be looking forward to a well-deserved rest, and as tempting as it is to go completely off grid for a couple of weeks, it’s really important to maintain some kind of social media presence over the holidays in order to stay visible and make sure all the great work you’ve put into your social media strategy this year doesn’t go to waste.

How active are people on social media during the Christmas period?

Forget the days of shunning Insta scrolls for quality time with the in-laws. There’s evidence to prove that your potential customers will be more active during the Christmas break than you think!

This brilliant article by Christopher S. Penn analyses Christmas social usage trends from data released a few years ago. After looking at the information available, he reckons that your audience will be around, they will be using their devices, and they may even be in buying mode.

3 ways to keep your social strategy up to speed this Christmas

1. Create Christmas-themed content

Don’t be scared to play on the fact it’s the most wonderful time of the year! Some people think Christmassy visuals can come across as a little bit corny, but in my view, spreading a little bit of digital Christmas cheer can lighten up your followers’ feeds and encourage them to actively engage with you. Whether or not you choose to jump on board the Christmas content train will depend on the kind of brand you have, and the kind of people you’re engaging with.

For example, if you’re a B2B service provider, you could keep things simple by sharing photos of your office staff opening their Secret Santa gifts (in a socially distanced way, of course), or sharing a professional-looking video of your management team thanking clients for their support. If you’re a B2C business, or a company with products to sell, you can afford to get a bit more creative. From Christmas-themed memes to advent-calendar-style reveals, there’s loads of stuff you can do to drum up interest in what you’re offering in December (and beyond).

Last thing: it’s been a challenging year for everyone, and the events that have been unfolding in the last few months have meant that Christmas 2020 is going to look very different for many of us. Approach your content strategy with some sensitivity and be mindful that a lot of people will not be able to celebrate in the way they normally would.

2. Check those festive hashtags

Remember, people search differently at Christmas time, which means popular hashtags are often replaced by super-festive equivalents. As always, you should be going for a mix of popular (read: competitive) tags and lesser-known ones for maximum reach and engagement.

Best-Hashtags.com is a great place to start for any kind of hashtag research, at any time of year. You’ll find its round-up of the best Christmas hashtags here. This blog from Instazood also breaks down the top Christmas hashtags for 2021 by usage and theme, with lots of ideas for different content themes like DIY, fashion, food and books.

If you need any help finding the right tags for your posts, just give me a shout. You might also find this Jelly Bean blog to be useful!

3. Pre-schedule your posts

If you haven’t been uploading your social media posts in advance up until now, then I promise that signing up with a pre-scheduling platform will be a real game-changer!

There are loads of post scheduling tools out there, so it really is a case of finding the platform that you find the most intuitive and easy to use. Hootsuite and Buffer are perhaps two of the best-known ones; they make light work of prepping posts so they go out at a particular time, and they offer some pretty useful analytics features, too. Both of these tools are available for a nominal cost, but you can upgrade your package to access more features and gain the ability to add more profiles to your account.

Alternatives include Facebook Creator Studio – which is ideal if you’re only running campaigns across Facebook and Instagram – SproutSocial, and Later. Try the demos and free trials on offer from each to see which one suits you best.

Whether you want to get ahead for 2021 or you need help perfecting your Christmas social media strategy, it’s not too late to get in touch with Jelly Bean for a free, no-obligation chat and some timely advice! My team and I will be working right up to 24^th December and will be answering emails throughout the holidays to make sure our clients are well looked after.